This guide focuses on adapting advocacy skills to help young people who experience homelessness and sexual violence build resiliency and lessen their traumas. It has three aims: (a) to provide an overview for the intersections between identity, trauma experiences, and resiliency among youth who are homeless; (b) to highlight core skills and techniques for advocates; and (c) to discuss how to tailor these skills in order to improve services for youth who identify as LGBTQ.

Also available is an infographic, Homeless Youth & Sexual Violence, which illustrates statistics that show the link between youth homelessness and sexual violence.

Young people who are homeless also often are sexually assaulted. You can help by listening to youth who have been harmed by homelessness and sexual violence. Your support can make a positive difference in their lives over time. (see references)

The National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2014). Youth. Retrieved from http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/youth

The National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2014). LGBTQ youth. Retrieved from http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/lgbtq-youth

RUNAWAY YOUTH

The Administration on Children, Youth and Families. (2002). Sexual abuse among homeless adolescents: Prevalence,correlates, and sequelae. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/sex_abuse_hmless.pdf

Durso, L. E., & Gates, G. J. (2012). Serving our youth: Findings from a national survey of service providers working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Retrieved from The Williams Institute: http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Durso-Gates-LGBT-Homeless-Youth-Survey-July-2012.pdf

National Network for Youth. (n.d.). Consequences of youth homelessness. Retrieved from http://www.nn4youth.org/system/files/IssueBrief_Youth_Homelessness.pdf

HOMELESS YOUTH

The Administration on Children, Youth and Families. (2002). Sexual abuse among homeless adolescents: Prevalence, correlates, and sequelae. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/sex_abuse_hmless.pdf

Pages

This site is supported by Grant/ Cooperative Agreement No. 1UF2CE002359-04 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.